Maree BC withdraw from Women’s Super League due to shortage of players

By Keith Kelly

Basketball in Galway has been dealt a blow with the news that Maree BC has withdrawn from participating in the upcoming Women’s Super League season.

The decision has been forced onto the club due to a lack of players, after the side has hit with a combination of a number of retirements, and the geographic spread of players heading to university around the country.

“We will not be entering a women’s team into the 2021/22 National League,” a club official confirmed to City Sport this week.

“We are hugely disappointed not to have been able to do so, but it is due to a number of factors – players moving away from Galway for college and work; family commitments on behalf of the coaches; along with the overall uncertainty due to Covid-19.

“Also, our home court has been unavailable for the past year and we have no guarantee that that will change this coming September,” the official says, in connection with the gym at Calasanctius College in Oranmore, which was repurposed as a staff room on health and    safety grounds in order to comply with social distancing rules.

The team had planned to move their games to the gym at Coláiste Bhaile Chlair in Claregalway, and was set to host the first game of the 2020/21 season there last October only for the league to be scrapped in the week leading up to its opening weekend because of Covid-19 restrictions on indoor sport.

“We are hoping that this will be a temporary hiatus and we will have a team competing at a national level the following year. If the season gets up and running, we aim to have a Galway League team and other underage teams for our female members,” the club official said.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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